AF Memes

[Fake Messiah]

It's not like I said any of that without context, it was in response to the question "who did "black" people pray to before slavery", that question makes absolutely no sense if the people in the scriptures WERE black... hence:

I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. - Song of Solomon 1:5

Hey, that's how it is with the Bible: everyone interprets it as they want, but you must understand that some people have different interpretations, like people at Biblical Answers, say

Some have suggested that the Shulammite woman was a dark-skinned woman, perhaps of African descent. However, a more likely answer is found in the very same verse. Immediately following the mention of the woman as “dark,” we read, “Because the sun has looked upon me” (ESV). In the NIV, it’s clearer what she means: “Because I am darkened by the sun.” And the rest of the verse explains why the Shulammite was in the sun: “My mother’s sons were angry with me / and made me take care of the vineyards; / my own vineyard I had to neglect” In other words, she was forced to work outside in the sun and had not taken care of her skin as she preferred.

In modern Western culture, many women go to great lengths to tan and darken their skin. However, the opposite was true of women in the ancient Near East. Dark or tanned skin was undesirable because it indicated a woman had spent significant time working in the sun, something that servants or poor women did. More affluent women would not labor in the sun; they would stay indoors more or have nicer clothing that covered their skin.

The Shulammite woman did not want to be stared at because of her tanned skin. In Song of Solomon 1:5 we read, “Dark am I, yet lovely, / daughters of Jerusalem, / dark like the tents of Kedar, / like the tent curtains of Solomon.” The tents of Kedar were made from the wool of black goats. The curtains of Solomon is a difficult phrase to render from the Hebrew text. Many believe the correct understanding is instead “the tents of Salma.” If so, the word picture is fitting. The Salma people lived in the same general region as Kedar and likely also constructed their tents with black wool. Otherwise, the curtains of Solomon were likely purple, the color of royalty, a color that would not fit the description in verse 6. Regardless, the Shulammite is telling the other women not to think poorly of her because of her tanned skin.

Heck, maybe even the next Christian war gets to be about who the ancient Jews were. Were they aliens, Bantu, white, brown, Asian, bushmen... nothing that few holy genocides couldn't solve.